Google Maps gets a visual upgrade

In order to better serve the consumers’ needs in the changing usability patters, Google has unveiled a visual revamp of its Maps offering. The upgraded Google Maps features new colour schemes, new iconography and overall enhanced maps in general.

“The world is an ever-evolving place. And as it changes, Google Maps changes with it. We’re updating Google Maps with a new look that better reflects your world, right now,” wrote Liz Hunt, Product Manager, Google Maps, in a blog post

In this blog post, she revealed that Google Maps will now feature improved driving, navigation, transit and explore maps to highlight what it believes might be relevant to its users at a given time. So, it will highlight petrol pumps during navigation or train/ metro stations during your daily commute and so on.

The company has also tweaked the Maps colour scheme and revamped the icons to make it easier for the consumers to find what they are looking for. The company has given specific colours to different categories of points of interests. Like, the food and drink-related places will have an orange colour icon and outdoor-related POIs will have a green icon and so on. Check out the new icons at the end of the report to get an idea of what to expect from Google Maps now.

According to the company, the changes will be rolled out to Maps and other Google products that use maps over the coming weeks. The same will also be available in third-party apps and websites that use Google Maps APIs in the coming months.

The revamped Google Maps comes just days after the company had started showing wait times for restaurants in Google Maps and Search. The wait times feature uses historical data to extrapolate for how long you might have to wait at a restaurant. You can read more about this in our original report.